


when the spotlights die out, we'll say the rest with no sound

by violetholdsme



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Crushes, Falling In Love, Fluff, Found Family, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, no angst omg is this even real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28529031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetholdsme/pseuds/violetholdsme
Summary: “Amaze me again tonight, Adachi Yuto,” Hyunggu uttered, words sounding more breathless than he actually felt.“I’ll try,” was all Yuto said, before moving closer to say his next words in a whisper. “I’m sure you’ll do the same.”
Relationships: Adachi Yuto/Kang Hyunggu | Kino, Jung Wooseok/Yan An, Ko Shinwon/Lee Hwitaek | Hui
Comments: 10
Kudos: 44





	when the spotlights die out, we'll say the rest with no sound

**Author's Note:**

> BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE IVE BEEN INFORMED I SHOULD PROBABLY SAY THAT THE CHAN IN THIS FIC IS DINO FROM SVT TO CLEAR ANY CONFUSION FJSKDKF
> 
> hi !!! this fic is heavily inspired by the lyrics of the song good to you by marianas trench, aaa it really gives me a yuki vibe when i listen to it T-T so if you want you can listen as well! this is also one of my more narration-heavy fics, just a heads up. i really just let my thoughts flow out unfiltered so i hope i've portrayed this well.
> 
> i really wanted to write this fic after dyl requested the prompt "things you said when we were at the top of the world," and since it was also their bday last 01/02 this is my belated gift !! dyl if you're seeing this ily, here's your yuki content !!
> 
> enjoy~!

“Look up, Kino-ya.”

Hyunggu abruptly snapped into reality at the mention of his name, blinking repeatedly at the realization that he had spaced out for what was the _nth_ time that evening. His makeup artist didn’t seem too happy about that, if the quiet _tsk_ and stifled sigh were anything to go by, but it was the least of Hyunggu’s worries right now.

“Sorry, Yanan-hyung,” Hyunggu uttered, followed by a sigh of his own. “And you can call me by my name, you know.”

“Well, you’re technically still my boss,” Yanan replied teasingly, and Hyunggu felt the tension in his shoulders relax just the tiniest bit. “And honestly, you guys don’t pay me enough for how much of a handful you are, so I would appreciate it if you please. Look. Up.”

Hyunggu blushed at the accusationーboth from being called a handful and from being caught still staring at a very specific, very _obvious_ direction of the room that had prevented him from looking up after he was asked. He did what he was told anyway, turning his head, looking upwards and letting Yanan work his magic with the eyeshadow brush in his hand. Hyunggu let the makeup artist tilt his chin up for him as he tried not to zone out again; unfortunately, it was often in trying not to, that Hyunggu found himself falling deep into his own mind’s clutches.

Tonight’s backstage waiting room was one of the more... ambiguous ones. It wasn’t one of those musty, old alleyways they usually saw when they were starting out, but it wasn’t a spacious, glaring white room with free drinks and makeup mirrors, either. This room was big enough for all of them to fit, get their faces done and their instruments ready, but small enough that gossip with one’s makeup artist needed to be whispered, and that Hyunggu could stare intently at _someone_ in the corner of the room from a respectable enough distance. He focused for now on _not_ doing that, thoughーat least not until Yanan was done with his eyes and needed to move on to another one of his bandmates.

Still, he could observe a decent amount out of the corner of his eye. Their other makeup artist, Shinwon, was busying himself with smudging lip tint on an unusually quiet Wooseok on the other side of the room. Chan sat beside him with his makeup done, playing a game on his phone, while Mingyu was nearly falling asleep where he sat next to the wall waiting for his turn. On Hyunggu’s side of the room was Hansol seated beside him, engrossed in doing his own eyeliner because he was _terribly nice_ and didn’t want to _stress Yanan-hyung out too much, you know?_ (His words, not Hyunggu’s, because Hyunggu knows he himself is a little shit.) And beside Hansol, of course, was Adachi Yutoーacoustic guitar laid on his lap, underneath the strumming motions of his slender fingers, oblivious to the weight of Hyunggu’s eyes having been on him the whole night.

Or any other night, for that matter.

“Is it to your satisfaction, _Sir_?”

Hyunggu grounded himself back to realityーgracefully, this time, as he had practicedーbefore hitting Yanan lightly on the arm for his teasing and moving closer to the small mirror to find the answer to his makeup artist’s question. The makeup was perfect, just as it always was, and at this point Hyunggu thinks he should have half a mind to let Yanan know that he no longer really needed to ask. But that could wait, maybe. He really just wanted to get back to his… gazing, right now.

“Yeah, it looks good. Thank you, Yanan-hyung.”

Yanan gave him a beaming smile before Hyunggu got up out of the chair, and he should _really_ have been giving him more credit for always accommodating all of his requests, but his heart was starting to thump out of his chest now that he was taking Hansol’s previous place next to Yuto. The Japanese man wasn’t even looking up at him, and Hyunggu didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. So he simply sat down, stole glances, tuned out Yanan’s exasperated _you really should just be letting me do your makeup, Vernon-ah, it’s my job, after all!_ , and let his mind take him wherever it would. They still had a good 25 minutes or so before they came on, and he supposed he could spare himself a moment to let his thoughts wander.

Their band might not have looked like the picture of friendship in this weird, little-but-not-too-little waiting room as of the moment, but they all knew differently. Their whole team was like some obscure family, in fact, whether or not Hyunggu would be caught dead admitting that. Mingyu and Chan were starting to laugh at something on the latter’s phone, while Shinwon was trying to cheer up a sulky Wooseok as he piled on more dark brown pigment onto the drummer’s eyelids. Even Hansol and Yanan were getting chatty now, unsurprisinglyーHansol always had a way of getting along with everyone, and everyone could attest that it was almost impossible to make him angry. Still, doesn’t mean they’d ever try.

The only sort of _quiet_ that Hyunggu could feel in the room was between himself and Yuto. He supposed it was natural for themーthey were far from similar, whether it was their demeanor or their fashion sense or even their music styles. The only thing of that sort that they shared, Hyunggu supposed, was that they both had a passion for music. They wouldn’t have been able to do this, if they didn’t. And it was probably true for the entirety of their band, but at least everyone else got along swimmingly. He and Yuto scarcely spoke. But there are times that Hyunggu realizes that that doesn’t entirely mean they don’t have their own way of seeing each other.

“Hyunggu.”

“Yes?”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, Yu. Thank you.”

Hyunggu wants to remember it nowーeverything that had led to all of them being here, in this very moment. Yuto seemed satisfied with Hyunggu’s answers enough to return to strumming chords to songs on tonight’s setlist, and the truth was, Hyunggu always felt like _he_ was the shy one whenever he was in Yuto’s presence. Hyunggu was one half of their band’s frontmen, for God’s sake, but Yuto turned him into a stuttering mess, or even worseーa _speechless_ one. But Yuto didn’t mind. He never did. For some reason, it always made Hyunggu so wonderfully confused that Yuto could make him feel so much even in the things that he _didn’t_ say.

They were so many years into being in this group together, and right now, Hyunggu doesn’t really care to count. They were called _SUMMER 987_ , a name they had come up with in high school and stuck with no matter how cliché all their friends told them it sounded, because after all, it reminded them of the way they all metーnot at all remarkable, more of something special-because-it-was-theirs, that sort of thing. The numbers represented the years they were born and the order in which they met; Chan met his best friends Hansol, Hyunggu, Yuto and Wooseok in high school, and the five of them met an upperclassman Mingyu at an ice cream shop in the summer, and they played music and made history. To tell the truth, Hyunggu only really knew Yuto because the Japanese boy was best friends with Wooseok, but they were never opposed to each other’s presence. It was only _different_ , a bit more deep and unspoken than the loud, boisterous friendships between everyone else in their little six-piece circus. Almost intimidatingーbut not quite, simply because it had grown steadily to become familiar.

Everyone always teased Hyunggu for being sensitive, nagging them all the time, _yadda yadda yadda_ , all that shit. Hyunggu had matured enough over the years to be okay with it, because it was still sort of endearing that at their core, the six of them really were still just a bunch of kids who liked to make noise and give it meaning. Mingyu was their eldest but none of them made any mistake in knowing he still quite liked to play around with the five of them, chasing them around when they recorded at Wooseok’s house or stealing their food at late night dinners. The serious part of the job was mostly up to their manager, Hwitaek, anywayーhe gave them room to play, just make music and have fun while he handled the serious stuff. 

But there were times that Hyunggu felt he hadn’t done enough, when he wanted to do his own dirty work, too. Moments sometimes came that Hyunggu wished he was taken more seriously, or wished he didn’t take _himself_ too seriously, and it was always Yuto who noticed. If he had to tell the truth, no one had ever really quite made him feel the way that Yuto did; that boy would always slip in some casual remark over drinks if someone had taken a joke too far, or vouch for him when Hyunggu needed to take a breath away from the crowd. Sometimes Hyunggu would get too overwhelmed by the crowds and noise and it’s always Yuto who would put one hand on his shoulder and take Hyunggu’s hand in the other, stroking with his thumb until Hyunggu realizes he’s breathing in time with the soft motion. When they’re alone together, Yuto smiles at him freely and Hyunggu’s breath catches for a completely different reason. When Yuto sees him, he _sees_ him, and it’s louder than anything he had ever seen, and it’s so much more than simply being _looked at_. 

Hyunggu knew that romance wasn’t out of the question for anyone in their group, but there was a sinking feeling in him the moment he considered the possibility that what he felt for Yuto, strange as it was, was something akin to love. Sure, love was all around them at this point; Hyunggu still _cannot_ unsee the night from a few weeks ago when he walked in on Wooseok and Yanan passionately making out in the dressing room after one of their bigger shows (Hyunggu vowed not to speak of it again, though he was so close to calling his makeup artist out for not so much as looking in Wooseok’s direction since then), and even Hwitaek and Shinwon were not so subtle with the matching rings recently-appeared on their fingers no matter how good they were at keeping their long-term relationship under wraps. Romance _within_ their group, however, wasn’t something they had ever discussed before, and Hyunggu knew it was risky terrain to try and tread. After all, Chan _did_ say one night that he would die before kissing any of them even for a stupid drinking game. Perhaps Hyunggu could’ve taken that lightly, though. (Perhaps he really didn’t have enough courage to do so.)

When he thinks about making it to the top, Hyunggu cannot believe that the six of them are so close to that goal, and all still side-by-side. It’s something Hyunggu can never get off his mind whenever they’re in the waiting rooms like this, waiting to perform the gigs Hwitaek gets them and still so bewildered at how the events and the clubs get bigger every time. Their manager always did say it was only a matter of time before the world finally sees them, and Hyunggu thinks it’s surreal for all its mundaneness. Because in the mix of it all Hyunggu never thought he would ever want more of what he already has now, no matter how trivial or uncertain.

Because Hyunggu kind of wants to keep living in the simple, subtle reality of Yuto’s attention. Singing and performing on stage was Hyunggu’s life and it was grand and he adored it, but he would never be able to do without Yuto’s hand to hold backstage before the show even started. He wanted just as much to see Yuto in their waiting rooms, let his touch linger a second more than necessary whenever Yuto asked to borrow Hyunggu’s charger because he never brought his own. When Hyunggu and Hansol would go to get snacks from the convenience store, Hyunggu always nagged Yuto because _there’s too much sugar in Monster Energy Drink, Yuto,_ but Yuto would give him a sly look and hum wordlessly because he knows that Hyunggu is still going to buy it for him every time (and yes, Hyunggu does). And something about those moments, the realness and unabashedness and the fact that it made Hyunggu feel so, very _ordinary_ ーsomehow it had become more exhilarating than the blinding lights and loud music. It reminded him that _he_ was real; beyond the stage and the songs, there was something about him that was real. Even backstage, Yuto found parts of him to hold up, to protect, to love.

“Hyunggu, breathe.”

Hyunggu looked at him and smiled, slowing his staggered breaths as Yuto looked at him. He touched Hyunggu the way he always did, on his shoulder and the back of his palm, and the look on his face wasn’t quite the concern Hyunggu had expected. Instead, Yuto looked at him with a fond smile and a deep blush on his defined cheeks, like he was telling Hyunggu it was okay to let himself be a little bit nervous, a little bit afraid, because Yuto trusted him and he always had. 

Hyunggu kind of knew that this time, it might have not just been about the show. 

Hyunggu swept the thought away when he realized everyone else was filing out of the waiting room, preparing to get up onto the stage and do what they did best. He held onto Yuto’s hand gently, his breathing suddenly even, and he got up out of his own chair while Yuto did the same.

Hyunggu took one look at this boy’s smudged, black eyeliner, knowing it contrasted with the careful, bright violet wings he had Yanan do on his own eyes. Hyunggu didn’t really care about the glaring difference. Not when Yuto’s hand always fit so perfectly in his own.

“Amaze me again tonight, Adachi Yuto,” Hyunggu uttered, words sounding more breathless than he actually felt.

“I’ll try,” was all Yuto said, before moving closer to say his next words in a whisper. “I’m sure you’ll do the same.”

Hyunggu let a deep blush paint his already-rosy cheeks as Yuto walked away to follow the others without another word, his arm stretched out so he didn’t leave Hyunggu’s touch until he absolutely had to.

When Hyunggu went to follow everyone else out before they went onstage, he basked in the feeling he was so used to at this point. It still exhilarated him just the same; the crowds were cheering, the spotlights were blinding, and his bandmates tested out the sounds of their instruments while waiting for Hyunggu and Chan to come out from backstage. Hyunggu spotted his fellow frontman soon enough, glad to see the excitement still painted on his face like this was the first show they would ever perform, and the nerves dissipated even more as he saw Yuto working out the kinks of his electric guitar. If that wasn’t enough, every one of them still seemed so at home doing whatever it was that they did since that summer in high school. Even Wooseok seemed to be over his sulkiness, giddy behind his drum set like he had suddenly realized the meaning of life or some shit.

“Ya, what’s up with him?” Hyunggu asked Chan while waiting for their cue to go on, half-screaming over the yells of the audience.

“With who?” Chan yelled back.

“Wooseokーwhy does he have that dumb smile on his face?”

“Yanan-hyung wished him good luck and kissed him on the cheek so he wouldn’t sulk anymore!”

“Oh… _Oh!_ ” Hyunggu snorted, before bursting into laughter. Chan looked a little bit confused, but Hyunggu simply patted him on the back once they were cued to go up on stage. They would probably get an explanation from Wooseok himself later, anyway.

The two of them ran up on stage, Hyunggu following after his younger bandmate. Chan did his usual greetings to the crowd, enthusiastically introducing their band, introducing himself as _Dino,_ and then letting Hyunggu handle the rest. His nerves were gone at that moment, and he smiled at the sea of people cheering in the audience though he could barely see anything with the glaring spotlights. He heard the sound of Yuto’s guitar playing the interlude before the first song and he smiled at the ground, almost too in awe to go on.

“Good evening everyone!”

But he did, because this was his dream. This was _their_ dream, one they had worked tirelessly to bring to life. And even though the crowd simply looked at him, there were five pairs of eyes beside him that saw him for who he wasーone of which even _loved_ it.

“My name is Kino. Tonight we have Wooseok on drums, Mingyu on bass, Vernon on keyboard,” Hyunggu paused, stealing a glance to his left, “and Yuto on electric guitar.”

Hyunggu let himself get mesmerized when Yuto played a short little solo after his introduction, getting lost in the sound soon enough. Chan introduced their band’s name again and they continued, singing their songs and feeling every word and sound of their instruments, lost in the noise and jumping and moving around on stage. 

Hyunggu truly felt this way every single time, and he hoped none of them would ever get tired of the rush performing brought. Everyone, onstage and in the audience alike, was having the time of their lives. Hyunggu wonders how life could ever have given him so much joy, just by being able to give that same joy to other people. None of them onstage could live without their music; that much, Hyunggu knew. He shared that sentiment down to its very core, no matter how different they all may have been. Whether it was performing together onstage or fighting over snacks or their makeup in their waiting rooms, Hyunggu never wanted to let it go.

Time always seemed to fly so fast when they were doing what they loved, because soon they were approaching the last song on their setlist and the crowd was receiving them with just as much enthusiasm. It was like the night had just begun; the crowd was insatiable, cheering and demanding an encore, and Hyunggu couldn’t help but laugh when Chan asked _Do you want more?_ if only just to tease. The audience yelled back in the affirmative and they were happy to oblige, giving the last of their energy into their final performance for the night. The song was more mellow, starting off with only Vernon’s keyboard and Chan’s more quiet vocals, before Hyunggu chimed in at the chorus.

Hyunggu didn’t really care that he was looking at Yuto the whole time, and moving closer to him for that matter. This was their first time performing the song; it was emotional and powerful and the music got stronger as they approached the second verse, which was to be sung by Hyunggu. Yuto had written lyrics for this song, and Hyunggu wanted to say every word as if he believed Yuto wrote them knowing they’d only be touched by Hyunggu’s lips. The crowd went wild with cheers at his obvious emotion, and he moved closer to Yuto with every beat.

Soon, the bridge approached and Hyunggu and Chan sang their lungs out, before leading into Yuto’s final solo of the night. Of course, the guitarist was met with cheers, and it only made him revel in it even more despite the sweat already dripping down his forehead. Hyunggu swore if he had no self-control he would’ve used his own handkerchief to dry the beads of sweat off himself, right then and there as Yuto played his heart out. But he simply watched, and gazed, feeling so surreal and yet so unmasked at the same time when Yuto looked back, locking their eyes like there was nothing and no one else around them. 

Hyunggu only brought his microphone up by muscle memory, singing the whole last chorus while looking stupidly at the boy playing his guitar beside him. He was harmonizing with Chan, for god’s sake, but Yuto had looked at him like they were on top of the world and Hyunggu didn’t want to move or look away anymore. His breath was getting caught in his chest as the song finally ended, and he broke his gaze for a moment to look at the crowd with gratitude, giving one final bow as they continued to cheer, their voices making their way into his entire being.

When he turned his attention back to his previous object of his stares, Hyunggu found Yuto looking back at him, eyes full of trust, and affection, and so much fucking _pride_. And that was all it finally took for Hyunggu to tip himself off the edge, to have the courage to let himself have _everything_ he truly wanted.

Hyunggu turned off his microphone then, taking one last moment to look into Yuto’s eyes, admire the color, before moving close enough for Yuto to hear.

“Kiss me.”

Yuto only looked at him, his chest still heaving from the performance. No one knew what happened when the spotlights went out, leaving the stage in darkness.

Except, of course, Hyungguーwho felt a pair of lips on his own, and a firm hand behind his neck to hold him up while he was breathless. Yuto didn’t try even once to pull away, as if kissing Hyunggu while no one’s eyes had yet adjusted to the darkness actually _helped_ him catch his breath, and Hyunggu was drowning in the same thing that gave him so much room to breathe, to just _be_. Whether they were on the stage or the furthest thing from it, Yuto truly made him feel like they were on top of the world.

And there was nowhere else to go but up.

**Author's Note:**

> there's barely any pain this time who even am i ㅎㅁㅎ leave a kudos or comment if you liked this or let's yell together on [twt](https://twitter.com/violetholdsme?s=20) or cc !!


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